The watchdog upheld complaints over the Sunday Politics exchange between the BBC presenter and former Scottish first minister Alex Salmond, which took place in the run-up to the May 2017 general election.

‘1 in five functionally illiterate’

Debating the record of the Scottish administration, Neil asked: “If services have been so well protected, why after a decade of SNP rule do one in five Scots pupils leave primary school functionally illiterate?”

The contention was pressed again during the interview.

However the BBC accepted that the figure was drawn from the 2009 Scottish Survey for Literacy and Numeracy, which was not the most recent research into school attainment, and should not have been quoted in the programme.

Furthermore, it “should have been made clear that the phrase ‘functionally illiterate’ was not used in that report and that its source was the education spokeswoman of the Scottish Conservatives.”

BBC told to improve complaints response

Ofcom ruled that Mr Neil “misrepresented statistics on literacy among Scottish primary school children in a way that would have had the potential to affect negatively and erroneously viewers’ understanding of educational standards in Scotland, at a time when those standards were being strongly debated during an election in that country.”

Ofcom also said it was “concerned that the BBC did not act sooner to correct the statement” during an election period and should take action to improve its response to complaints during elections.

Neil defends interview

In a personal defence presented to Ofcom, the broadcaster said the statistic was “framed provocatively to elicit a response that knocked [the] premise back.”

Mr Neil said: “It would have been better if I had phrased my question along the lines of ‘why is literacy among Scottish school pupils still so bad – and maybe even getting worse’.”

“But I do not accept that the formulation I used seriously misled viewers about the gravity of the situation”.

‘Strong evidence’ of illiteracy

The broadcaster presented Ofcom with detailed statistics to support the contention that there are serious literacy problems in Scottish schools.

Mr Neil added that “evidence is strong that illiteracy in Scottish schools is still deeply embedded in the system and that, far from improving, is likely getting worse, even
after 10 years of SNP government.”

During the interview, Salmond replied to the literacy accusation: “You’ve to take these things in the round, and Nicola Sturgeon’s made it a top priority to address these challenges.

“But let’s take another statistic: 93% of Scottish kids are now emerging from school to positive destinations. That means to further education, to apprenticeships or to work”.

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